The Wild Adventures of The Spider

For the last few years, Will Murray has been writing new novels featuring The Spider under the Wild Adventures of The Spider line from Altus Press through the Adventures in Bronze website.

At present, he has done four novels, and I finally got the first three novels. So now we go over The Doom Legion (2018), Fury in Steel (2021), and Scourge of The Scorpion (2022). In addition to The Spider, all three include other characters from Popular Publications: Operator #5, The Suicide Squad, G-8, The Skull Killer, and The Scorpion.

So for those not familiar with these characters, here is a quick run-down, though you can also read my prior postings on some of them.

The Spider was one of Popular Publications’ most popular hero pulps, running for 118 issues. Millionaire Richard Wentworth disguises himself as The Spider to fight a wide array of weird-menace threats, being branded an outlaw for his methods as he usually leaves his foes dead with a spider sign stamped on their foreheads. He is joined by Ram Singh, his Sikh manservant; his long-time fiancé, Nita Van Sloan, who often gets into the action; and his chauffeur, Jackson. Police Commissioner Stanley Kirkpatrick suspects he is The Spider, but does recognize his help.

Operator #5, America’s Secret Service Ace, lasted only 48 issues. Operator #5 worked to protect America from a variety of threats, both internal and foreign. He may be best known for the 13-part series with America being invaded and largely conquered by the Purple Empire out of Europe, before defeating them. Really Jimmy Christopher, he is known for his rapier hidden in his belt, a scar (here, a birthmark) that looks like an eagle on the back of one of his hands, and the skull-shaped watch fob that contains a powerful poison. He was aided by his twin sister Nan; his father, a retired operator; his boss Z-7; and his girlfriend, Diane Elliot. Not all appear in these works.

G-8, the Flying Spy lasted 110 issues. G-8 was an unnamed American aviator and spy, fighting in a bizarre version of WWI against a weird array of foes including Stahlmaske and Herr Doktor Krueger. Written by Robert Hogan, he was aided by his two wingmen. He’s been included in some new stories, but none where he’s the main character. You can read many of his stories reprinted by Adventure House.

The Suicide Squad was a trio of FBI agents, Stephen “Killer” Klaw, Dan Murdoch, and Johnny Kerrigan. They appeared in a series written by Emile Tepperman that mainly ran in Ace G-Man Stories, where they fought against spies, saboteurs, and even super-villains. The series has been reprinted by Steeger Books. Tepperman also wrote Operator #5 and The Masked Marksman.

Popular published a couple of villain pulps staring The Octopus, followed by The Scorpion, both of whom led the Purple Eyes cult. In both, they are opposed by the mysterious Skull Killer, a weird pulp hero with two other aliases. He is really rich playboy Jeffrey Fairchild, who also operated as kindly Dr. Skull in the slums. Per Will Murray’s research, he thinks the author of these two stories is Arthur Leo Zagat, who also wrote the counter-spy Red Finger for Popular.

Team-ups in the pulps were pretty rare. Many modern fans, after all the comic-book team-ups, want the same with pulp heroes. But while I like them, they have to be done properly and respect the differences in these characters. Ones between characters from the same publisher make more sense than cross-company team-ups, in my view. This is because each company had its own editorial style which causes some similarities in its characters as compared to other companies.

First off is The Doom Legion (2018), which finds Wentworth and Nita at a masquerade party at the metropolitan museum. There they encounter a huge man wearing the full face mask and outfit of an executioner, and see a man dressed as The Spider, though his outfit isn’t totally accurate. Later Wentworth meets the man who is Operator #5. But there is another unusual event: a strange meteor crashes into Central Park. This meteor has a bizarre effect on people, turning them into a kind of zombie, but worse, causes their eyes to glow green and send out rays that burn and kill. Can this be contained?

Several people are killed, the fake Spider tries to kill either Kirkpatrick or Wentworth. And we learn the huge man is really Stahlmaske, G-8’s old foe thought dead toward the end of the war. And he soon teams up with the fake Spider, who is an old foe of The Spider: Count Calypsa, also known as The Dictator (from The Spider novel “The Dictator of the Damned”). They think they can use the meteor to advance their own plans of sewing chaos and discord in the city, and even take it and transport it elsewhere.

While both The Spider and Operator #5 are working, mainly separately, to stop them, and new player enters the field. A Capt. George Gate, an Army aviator and part of Military Intelligence, who is really G-8. Is this his real name or another alias? Neither Operator #5 nor G-8 wish to work with Wentworth or The Spider, as they see Wentworth as just a meddling civilian and The Spider as a dangerous vigilante. There is furious action and many deaths as the meteor zombies advance, even wiping out the New York headquarters of the Intelligence Service. Can The Spider, Operator #5, G-8, along with Nita and Diane, put an end to Count Calypsa and Stahlmaske’s schemes before more people are killed? Or will they escape to make trouble in the future?

Next is Fury in Steel (2021), and it features the return of an old foe of The Spider’s. Maybe? A madman who called himself the Iron Man outfitted several criminals with iron armor to menace the city in the story “Satan’s Murder Machine,” which occurred two years prior. While he was stopped, it was never clear where the armor came from. Now the city is being hit by robots with similar armor that are attacking subways and trains. The FBI responds by sending in the Suicide Squad, who brook no interference from Wentworth, as he’s just a civilian, nor The Spider, a vigilante. But who is now behind these robots? Is it a criminal scheme or some kind of foreign sabotage?

As The Spider tries to put an end to the menace, he is stymied by the actions of the Suicide Squad. This sidelines both Nita and Ram Singh, so that there is only Jackson to help him, though Ram Singh does join him later on. And this new robot army is not only targeting The Spider but is also attacking buildings. The one behind it seems to be calling themselves the Steel Skull. And his robots, the Steel Men, seem more bent on sabotage, destroying trains and subways before destroying buildings. They damage the Statue of Liberty, succeed in destroying the Cloud Tower, and topple the Washington Monument, before trying to bring down the Vertex Building.

Despite being as much attacked by the Suicide Squad as by the Steel Skull, The Spider figures out who he really is and where the robots are coming from, as well as how to attack them. Finally, will The Spider be able to triumph over the Steel Skull and do so without being captured and exposed by the Suicide Squad?

Finally, Scourge of The Scorpion (2022) gives us a direct follow-up to the events of The Octopus and The Scorpion, and reveals who they were and their connection to each other. The Purple Eyes cult is back and, for some reason, is after a strange patient under the care of Dr. Skull. Who is this patient? And since we know that Dr. Skull is also the Skull Killer, is he coming back to put an end to the Purple Eyes as well? The Spider comes to investigate this patient when Purple Eyes cultists appear, led by The Scorpion. Not only do they take the patient, but also The Spider, who is revealed as a woman. Jackson, who comes to check on The Spider, is waylaid by The Scorpion.

Meanwhile, Wentworth is returning to the U.S. after being in Germany hunting down Stahlmaske. We learn it’s been about two years since the events of The Doom Legion. And that The Octopus appeared about two years ago, with The Scorpion appearing a year ago, but after both were confronted by the Skull Killer, nothing has been heard from any of them since. They seem to be active again with the rise of the Purple Eyes.

Trying to leave his ship which has arrived in port, Wentworth swims out to his seaplane, but finds it’s not piloted by Ram Singh, but another who tries to kill him: a purple-eyed killer. Escaping, he finds Ram Singh knocked out and out of the action. He finds Jackson at Dr. Skull’s hospital, suffering from lockjaw. This is caused by the poison from The Scorpion. Another doctor is checking him out. And when Nina returns, she tries to kill him, and is also suffering from lockjaw and has purple eyes.

The Spider is trying to figure out what is going on. He figures out that Dr. Skull is someone else, but who? Is he really Dr. Shadrach Drago? And is he really The Scorpion? Can Jackson, Ram, and Nina be restored to normal? The Scorpion has struck through his minions and hundreds, maybe thousands, face death due to lockjaw. Does The Scorpion have a cure for his own poison?

Wentworth is working to figure things out, soon aided by Fairchild. Soon they confront The Scorpion and expose each other’s secrets. After exposing The Scorpion and finding the cure, what about The Octopus? He seems missing. Until he strikes through an outbreak of botulism. Can The Spider and Skull Killer track him down and put an end to him as well?

In the end, we learn who The Scorpion was, as well as The Octopus was, and what their connection to each other. Also, in the original pulp, The Octopus was described as a sort of half-man/half-octopus creature, and this is explained as well. In addition to being the end of both villains, it appears to be the end also of the Skull Killer as well.

If you enjoyed these, be sure to get the fourth one, The Hangman From Hell, which I’ve already reviewed. What’s next? Well, I don’t expect another Spider novel for a while. I think the next work we’ll see from Murray will be his third volume of The Shadow articles, Knight of Darkness.

After that, it should be a fifth volume of Sherlock Holmes stories, a Secret Agent X novel (will that have crossovers?), and a new Tarzan novel.